Handhelds to get 'console-quality games,' says AMD

AMD has announced the release of a suite of development tools it says will prepare content creators for its next-gen handheld graphics processors. Next year, the company says it will introduce Imageon media processors based on its patented Unified Shader Architecture—the very same architecture that debuted in the Xbox 360 and will appear in AMD's upcoming R600 GPU. The next-gen Imageon chips will also have support for OpenVG 1.0, a hardware-accelerated vector graphics API, as well as OpenGL ES 2.0.

In addition to releasing discrete media processors, AMD says it plans to license its upcoming mobile graphics technologies to third-party semiconductor suppliers. According to the company, the resulting hardware will provide an "incredibly powerful handheld gaming platform" and will allow developers to create "true console-quality mobile games." AMD's Imageon graphics processors are already used today in phones from BenQ-Siemens, Fujitsu, HTC, and Motorola.